Minister of the Environment and import of wastes to be approved by the same minister, have been imposed on the export and import of wastes under the principle of domestic treatment. In 2007, 36 exports were checked and 6 imports approved by the minister, according to the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law. (For information on the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes, refer to (8) in 4, Section 2, Chapter 3.)

In addition, in order to improve conditions for waste-discharging enterprises to select excellent waste-treating enterprises, a project for developing a larger number of excellent industrial waste-treating enterprises has been carried out. Created as part of this project was the “Excellence Evaluation System,” in which the 47 prefectures, at the time of license renewal, check that waste-treating enterprises meet certain standards and as of the end of March 2009, 2,081 projects and 274 enterprises has been certified. On the other hand, some local public bodies operate a system in which waste-treating enterprises can be checked if they meet the necessary evaluation standards, regardless of the time of license renewal. Also in this system, 618 projects and 157 enterprises are certified to meet the standards, showing a steady increase in numbers.

In addition, the introduction of the electronic manifest system has a lot of advantages, such as higher-efficiency administrative work, compliance improvement, and forgery prevention, which rapidly increased the adoption rate of the system to about 14% at the end of fiscal 2008. However, the number is still smaller than expected. Therefore, in order to achieve the target that the adoption rate of the electronic manifest system should be increased to 50%, which is set in “IT New Reform Strategy” (January 19, 2006) compiled by the IT Strategy Headquarters, systematic and comprehensive efforts are being made to spread and promote the system.

#### B. Promotion of Waste Reduction, etc. Based on the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law

According to the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law revised in 1997, a so-called “Recycling Certification System” was created. In this system, an enterprise does not need a license for a specific type of business and facility installation when the means of recycling specific wastes by a waste-treating enterprise has been certified by the Ministry of the Environment to meet certain standards, such as no expected problem with the conservation of the living environment. At the end of fiscal 2008, 66 cases were certified in municipal waste treatment and 48 cases in industrial waste treatment.

In addition, according to the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law revised in 2003, a so-called “Wider-area Treatment Certification System” was created. In this system, when a waste-treating enterprise is certified by the Minister of the Environment as suitable for proper waste treatment including waste reduction because of its wider-area operation, no license for a specific type of business is required of the enterprise. In October 2008, waste printing machines and waste devices for cellular phones were included in municipal waste subject to the Wider-area Treatment Certification System. In order to promote the collection and recycling of wastes by manufacturers, etc., themselves, by the end of fiscal 2008, 69 cases were certified in municipal waste treatment and 169 cases in industrial waste treatment.

According to the report “Ideal State of Municipal waste Treatment by Municipalities for the Establishment of a Sound Material-Cycle Society” submitted by the Central Environment Council in February 2005, the Ministry of the Environment decided that the whole national government would build appropriate recycling and treatment systems focused on the 3Rs, this was based on the fact that the objective of the wasterecycling administration has been shifting from conventional matters, such as conservation of the living environment, improvement of public health, and solutions to pollution problems, to the establishment of a sound material-cycle society. Accordingly, the ministry revised its basic policy formulated according to the provision of Paragraph (1), Article 5-2 of the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law in May 2005.

The basic policy laid out tasks for municipalities to achieve for the optimization of municipal waste treatment systems for the establishment of a sound material-cycle society, the following three points are now clearly described (Figure 3-3).

1) To analyze and provide costing information needed for projects related to municipal waste treatment, examine the analysis results from various angles, and utilize PFI as necessary, so that the projects becomes socioeconomically efficient

2) To further charge a fee for municipal waste treatment in order to promote the generation control and recycling of municipal waste with economic incentives used to share costs fairly according to the amount of generated waste, and to raise the awareness of citizens

3) To clearly explain to citizens and business operators the necessity and environmental load and economy-related advantages when the current municipal waste treatment system categories for sorted collection of wastes, waste treatment methods, etc. are changed or when a new system is introduced

According to the statements shown above, in June 2007, the Ministry of the Environment created “Municipal waste Accounting Standards” that gave a standard method of analyzing costs for a municipal waste treatment project, “Guidance for Charging a Fee for Municipal Waste Treatment” that showed how to carry out procedures for charging a fee, and “Guidelines for a Municipal Waste Treatment System for the Establishment of a Sound Material-Cycle Society in Municipalities”

Figure 3-3 Changes to implementation rate of charging waste treatment fees by municipalities

Note: Implementation rate of charging waste treatment fees by municipalities is the rate of local governments that have implemented charging fees for domestic waste treatment (excluding waste directly brought in and bulky waste); in recent years the rate is steadily increasing apart from fiscal year 2004, in which the rate appears to decrease due to the merger of municipalities.